Financial Bias Simmers in Europe

Mazlum Hosgul, a Turkish immigrant who runs a small gardening business in The Hague, moved to the Netherlands 10 years ago. Recently, his request to refinance the mortgage on his apartment in a largely immigrant neighborhood was rejected. The reason, according to an email from his mortgage broker: He lived in the wrong post code.

Redlining -- or the practice of refusing people bank loans based on their address -- has long been outlawed in the U.S. as discriminatory. But in Europe, although many countries are facing...